Foreigners Destabilizing S. Africa With Strike, ANC Says

June 9 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s ruling party accused
the union whose members are taking part in the longest mining
strike in the country’s history of being linked with “foreign
forces” that are attempting to derail the economy.

More than 70,000 members of the Association of Mineworkers
and Construction Union have been on strike since Jan. 23,
crippling output by the world’s biggest platinum producers. The
walkout caused mining production to plunge by the most in 47
years in the first quarter, contributing to the economy’s
contraction in the period, the first since a 2009 recession.

“The articulation of AMCU position by white foreign
nationals, signaling interest of the foreign forces in the
destabilization of our economy,” is a “disturbing
development,” Gwede Mantashe, the general secretary of the
ruling African National Congress, said yesterday in a statement
following a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee.

The union had also allowed “the direct participation” of
the Economic Freedom Fighters in the negotiations, “and thus
the collaboration with the foreign forces,” he said. The EFF
formed last year by expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius
Malema that won 6.4 percent of the vote in last month’s
elections, making it the nation’s third-largest party. Dali
Mpofu, an advocate representing the AMCU, is a member of the
EFF.

Government Meeting

The interests of foreign forces led the ANC committee to
caution Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi to lead an
effort to resolve the strike “with care,” the party said. ANC
members attending the meeting questioned the role of the state
in workplace disputes when there are “clear rules” on how to
deal with these, it said.

Today is the final government-led meeting to resolve the
strike, Ramatlhodi said on June 7. Anglo American Platinum Ltd.,
Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. and Lonmin Plc have lost 21.7
billion rand ($2.1 billion) of revenue while workers have
foregone 9.6 billion rand in wages, the companies said on a
joint website today.

Mantashe’s comments are “unfortunate,” Bishop Jo Seoka, a
past president of the South African Council of Churches who has
been helping the striking miners, said on Johannesburg-based
SAfm radio today. “Politicizing the strike isn’t helpful. Mpofu
is sitting there in his capacity as a professional person. He
has been asked by the workers to facilitate in the process to
find a solution.”